I would like to spend a few minutes highlighting the importance of developing and enhancing the personal skills and qualities of young people and students. I would also like to give you some insight into the different contexts in which GRASP has been used to foster these skills and qualities.

I think most of us would agree that in order to make the most of ourselves and to contribute effectively to society;

  • We need to maximise personal effectiveness by seeking to develop a wide range of personal skills and qualities, such as communication, information technology, problem solving, enterprise, determination, enthusiasm, tolerance etc.
  • We need to respond positively to new challenges and situations by seeing challenges as opportunities to be grasped and turned to advantage.
  • It is very important to interact purposefully with others by being willing to work collaboratively in teams to achieve common purpose and goals.
  • We should value ourselves and others by developing self-confidence, self-esteem and a belief in one's abilities, whilst at the same time valuing the contributions and skills of others we interact with.
  • We should accept the need to be independent, life-long learners who are always striving for continuous improvement and personal development.

Therefore a key purpose of education must be to aid the development of the well-balanced, well-rounded person who has the personal skills and qualities necessary to function effectively both as an individual, working independently and as a member of a team working collaboratively and supportively with others. Comino Centres actively involved n the training of teachers realise the importance of developing to the full the personal skills and qualities of our future teachers. It is the development of these skills and qualities alongside the key professional attributes and values necessary for teaching, which are crucial in producing high quality, effective teachers. We believe that GRASP can and does play an important role in assisting the development and enhancement of personal skills and qualities. Comino Centres have used GRASP successfully with pupils, trainee and experienced teachers:

  • To enable meaningful self and team assessment and review.
  • To focus thinking, planning and action.
  • To enable realistic and achievable target setting.
  • To enable individuals and teams to monitor and control their progress.
  • To give clarity to the common purpose and produce agreed action.
  • To help effective communication and presentation.

In Sheffield Hallam University, we have worked with many groups and organisations, applying GRASP to improve personal effectiveness and group performance. For example:

  • Students are being encouraged to be independent learners. The use of GRASP provides an effective process in this regard. Students are asked to create and maintain throughout their course a personal portfolio, which identifies strengths and weaknesses, sets targets and criteria for success, generates actions and monitors progress.
  • We have worked with CREST (Creativity in Science and Technology), the British Association's Young Investigators, the Nuffield Bursary Scheme and the Research Council's Researchers in Schools scheme, and in each of these important schemes GRASP has been used to help young people enhance their problem solving, communication and team work skills.
  • We have supported SATRO (Science and Technology Regional Organisation) work with school-business partnerships, to help to clarify purpose and action plans for collaborative education-business projects and activities.
  • We have used GRASP with National Placement Schemes such as the Research Council's Pupil Researcher Initiative's Researcher in Residence Scheme and the BY Science and Engineering Alliance Programme, to enable participants to identify their strengths, review and evaluate their contributions.
  • GRASP has been effective with our Returners to Science teaching programmes - to help returning teachers to develop personal profiles, CVs and make effective job applications and interviews.

Finally we are convinced of the importance of developing people's personal skills and qualities and feel that greater recognition should be given to this aspect of one's development at all levels in education and training. GRASP can be a powerful tool in facilitating this work.